Organ donors should have their funeral expenses paid by the NHS, according to a proposal to encourage millions more to sign up to the register.

The desperate shortage of suitable transplant organs has left 8,000 people in the UK on a waiting list for a life-saving operation. And while it takes an average of three years for a suitable donor to become available, three people on the list die every day.

With a typical funeral costing thousands of pounds, the proposal for the NHS to pay ‘reasonable’ costs of between £1,500 and £5,000 could be an incentive for many to join the Organ Donor Register.

However concerns have already been raised that families could end up ‘leaning on’ their sick relatives to sign up to the scheme to save funeral expenses.